Habitual child porn offender jailed

A man who regularly downloaded child pornography and kept doing so and communicating with children while on bail has been sentenced to four years in jail.

The Adelaide District Court heard David Paul Ryan, 42, kept collecting child pornography and communicating with children on internet chat sites and via Skype after his arrest in 2008.

The court heard he told one child that he would take her to the Royal Show and tried to encourage another in Victoria to run away from home and live with him.

Ryan pleaded guilty to 29 counts of breaching bail and several counts of aggravated possession of child pornography and communicating with children to make them amenable to sexual activity.

The court heard Ryan was accessing material while part of a sex offenders rehabilitation course at Owenia House in Adelaide.

Clearly you need treatment which is available only at Owenia House and available to you only when you are living in the community. It is not available to you in custody

Judge Michael Boylan

Judge Michael Boylan said it was clear Ryan had not been addressing his criminal behaviour.

"In my view you have little insight into your offending and, as it now stands, you are at significant risk of reoffending," he said.

"Although you have had no physical contact with any child, you have exploited a number of children by viewing the material in your possession and by having conversations with various children online.

"You have encouraged a market which feeds on the sexual exploitation of children.

"Clearly you need treatment which is available only at Owenia House and available to you only when you are living in the community. It is not available to you in custody."

Judge Boylan said lack of treatment options made sentencing harder.

"That is very regrettable. Both the protection of children in our community and deterring other people from committing similar offences must be my paramount consideration in sentencing you," he said.

"I have found the task of fixing a non-parole period in this matter particular difficult.

"I must balance the need for adequate punishment and making sure the sentence will deter others from like offending, but I must balance these matters with your obvious need for treatment and the advantage to the community in having people in your position receive adequate treatment."

Ryan was jailed for four years with a non-parole term of two years and the sentence back-dated to May last year when Ryan was taken into custody.

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